The Falling Autumn Leaves

She loves autumn. The weather simply makes her fall in love: the gleaming blue sky and the yellow leaves glistening above the green grass with the mellow afternoon sun. The leaves fall freely without wavering at the slightest of the breeze. The gravity seems to be at its strongest and the autumn leaves fall as if they are falling in love with the ground. She enjoyed watching the yellow and brown leaves leave their branches, dance in the air and softly reside in the soil.Autumn is the time when even the leaves are as beautiful as the flower bedecking the earth as a bride. Every single of the leaves fall off by the end of autumn.

This time it was a different autumn for her. Though the falling yellow leaves graced itself with the same splendor that she always enjoyed, she could not smile. Instead, with every falling leaf her heart broke. He promised her to be back by the end of the autumn. A beautiful hopeful promise he gave her last autumn. The last autumn was full of life and the best times she ever had. They climbed up the small hill at the end of the town to watch the sunset, collected the yellow leaves and blew them in the air, ran through the green grass to catch every leaf that fell. The whistling of the wind and the songs of the migratory birds,the smell of the earth and the warm taste of the sun defined the autumn for them. But he left soon. Too soon; even before the autumn did, promising to be back to celebrate the next autumn and every other season after that together,in each other's arms. That night, under the full moon she stood alone awaiting for the next autumn. She bid farewell to the joyful and sweet autumn.

With every leaf that fell, her hope grew faint. The grandeur of the season didn’t appeal her in his absence. She could not smile from heart as it was somewhere else. The rustling of the crisp brown leaves whispered to her ears in his voice and reminded her of the promise. The pleasure she had walking over the brown leaves was turning into pain now. She was waiting to see him before she sees the last autumn leaf fall off. She sat under the shade of the same tree from where they watched the sun slowly sinking behind the hill. With the setting sun, her dream was slowly setting as well. He left too soon and did not turn back even once for all these years. Her mails were unanswered and she had no clue of his whereabouts. Even the spring and summer treated her as the withering winter. The falling autumn leaves stabbed her heart. He chose to be the autumn leaves, leaving its loving branch and fell about here and there with the blowing wind, she thought.However, somewhere in her heart she was still singing the autumn song they always sang together.

Late in the evening,she returned home saddened by the thought that he might never return. She might now never enjoy the autumn as she did last year. The falling leaves would now give her a saddening impression. She always saw the yellow leaves as a hope,how they turned beautiful even at the end of their lives. This elevated her hope that every ending must be beautiful, but this was proving to be wrong. She stood at the balcony of her room from where she could see the streets. As the twilight was growing darker, under the street lamps she saw a shadow approaching. The silhouette was becoming clear as it came closer to the lamp.Under the street lamp as the stranger stood, she smiled with joy. It was him,yes, he kept his promise. He returned to her before the last autumn leaf fell off. They ran to each other, hugged and kissed while the moon quietly watched these two hearts unite.